Crampton's Market set to relocate next year

Grocery store forced to move after landlord decided not to renew lease

Crampton’s Market owner Erin Crampton (left, with co-owner Marc DeGagne) said she was excited to find a bigger shop space in Headingley.

Crampton’s Market won’t be serving Prairie produce to shoppers in Winnipeg this time next year.

After 20 years at the corner of Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Waverley Street, Crampton’s Market is on the move.

The hyper-local south Winnipeg grocer — known for its Manitoba-grown produce, ethically raised meats and in-store bakery — announced on Tuesday plans to move to Headingley in May 2019 because its landlord, Manitoba Hydro, decided not to renew the lease.

“It’s going to be same, same, but bigger,” said Erin Crampton, who co-owns the shop, which sells products sourced from almost 100 Manitoba farmers.

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Crampton’s Market won’t be serving Prairie produce to shoppers in Winnipeg this time next year.

After 20 years at the corner of Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Waverley Street, Crampton’s Market is on the move.

The hyper-local south Winnipeg grocer — known for its Manitoba-grown produce, ethically raised meats and in-store bakery — announced on Tuesday plans to move to Headingley in May 2019 because its landlord, Manitoba Hydro, decided not to renew the lease.

"It’s going to be same, same, but bigger," said Erin Crampton, who co-owns the shop, which sells products sourced from almost 100 Manitoba farmers.

The store will still be in business during regular hours throughout the summer at its current location, she added.

Construction is already underway to update the vacant building beside the T&T Seeds Garden Centre in Headingley (7724 Roblin Blvd.) so Crampton’s Market can move in next door. The new location, 20 kilometres northwest of the current store, is more than twice the size of the current shop.

"We’re very pleased we’ve found a home for the business and we’re very pleased to have found somebody who understands the vision of what Crampton’s Market is and has the capacity to take it to the next level," Crampton said.

While the market will be under new ownership, she said the aisles will still be stocked with local, organic produce and free-range meats and there will still be the signature Crampton’s Market bakery.

The new arrangement will allow T&T Seeds owner Jarrett Davidson — who will become the new principal owner, with Crampton retaining some ownership— to buy produce from the farmers he already sells seeds to.

"It’ll be an interesting full-circle business," Crampton said.

Continuing to support the Manitoba economy by buying organically produced fruits and vegetables will remain crucial to the business, Davidson said, adding everything will be similar except there will be more parking in Headingley.

"Ultimately, we’re going to create a local gardening and food destination."

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Customers who can walk to the store from Waverley Heights now are "heartbroken," but Crampton said they didn’t have much of a choice but to find a new location after Manitoba Hydro notified them its policies had changed and it could no longer lease the land to the grocery store.

The business is right beside towers and high-voltage power lines that bring power to a large part of south Winnipeg, Hydro spokesman Bruce Owen wrote in a statement Tuesday.

"Our concern is timely access by our crews to the right of way should there a major outage," he wrote.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s standards have simply become "more robust" since Crampton signed the lease in 1997, Owen wrote.

No other businesses or homes in the area have been affected by the new rules, he added.

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